Reno 911!: 5.16 ‘The Parade’ Recap

Original Air Date: July 10, 2008

NOTE: This series and recap contain very mature themes and language.

Well, Lieutenant Dangle sure is excited on the fifth-season finale of Reno 911!. The reason is the upcoming statewide Law Enforcement Parade that will take place in Carson City. While the boss seems to think the team agreed to go with the theme “Together We Are United,” Jones ends up hitting him with a chair because he’s convinced the agreed-upon theme is “We Can Do This.”

Either way, everybody’s onboard when Johnson suggests making a giant papier-mâché Osama Bin Laden head with his finger up his nose that can be bust open with a bat at the end of the route like a piñata to reveal candy and condoms. Junior even suggests helping the environment by recycling an Abraham Lincoln head they have lying around the station.

After Dangle, Junior, Johnson, and Wiegel respond to a suicide bomber crisis at the local brother — it’s just a guy with a pack of hot dogs hooked to his waist and a stereo remote control in his hand as the trigger — Williams, Wiegel, and Jones attempt to retrieve the department’s 911 calls from the new message center in Bombay, India.

Budget cutbacks have forced the change, but, unfortunately, the new message takers only understand three concepts: rape, fire, and hold while I get my supervisor. If you haven’t been raped and aren’t on fire, then you get to listen to Indian music while you hold on forever. And you’d better be prepared when asked for your confirmation number because if you don’t have that information, it’s back to hold hell you go.

Two interludes involve a pervert spying on his neighbors and Junior waiting for a police dog to pass the C-4 explosive it ate. When the dog does, the deputy bags it and throws it in a sidewalk garbage can, which Dangle then promptly causes to explode when he throws away some trash.

Back at the garage where the cops are preparing their float, one of them eventually recognizes a potential problem. Did the fax about the parade say the theme is “Remember 9-1-1,” as in the emergency phone number, or “Remember 9/11,” as in the terrorist tragedy? Considering the huge replica of the World Trade Center on top of their float, the difference is crucial.

Two more interludes show Dangle and Wiegel chasing a perpetrator who claims he was leading them to a crime scene when he’s caught, as well as Dangle and Junior conducting yet another parolee interview with Terrence, who has neglected to attend all nineteen scheduled parole interviews with his parole officer.

The discussion ends with a wisecrack about dressing his “fully erect johnson” up as a turkey and crashing the Thanksgiving pageant at a local middle school so it could be eaten. In Terrence’s twisted mind, that was patriotic because it was Thanksgiving and somebody’s got to eat turkey on the holiday.

The officers finally manage to finish their float back at the garage, but the feeling of relief is shortlived because they soon realize they were supposed to be at the parade fifteen minutes ago. As they speed along the highway to get to Carson City as fast as possible, something goes wrong, and the vehicle carrying the entire staff crashes into a building and explodes.

A somber scene next depicts formal law-enforcement funeral services and a casket being loaded onto a hearse, before seven deputy hats are thrown into the air. It seems a regular character has died, and my money is on Raneisha Williams since Niecy Nash, the actress who plays her, has a new series called Do Not Disturb premiering on Fox this fall. Another clue is Nash’s large image on the cover of the fifth-season DVD set.